Prohibitions On Market Manipulation and False Information in Subtitle B of the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 #535819-00016

Prohibitions On Market Manipulation and False Information in Subtitle B of the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 #535819-00016

May 5, 2008 9:22am

Submission Number:

535819-00016

Commenter:

Stanley Bergkamp

State:

KS

Initiative Name:

Prohibitions On Market Manipulation and False Information in Subtitle B of the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007

The price of oil, no matter what economists might say, is not determined by a simple supply and demand curve. The biggest problem is that the major OPEC countries are not only determining the price by controlling out put, they have also figured out that they can inject millions of dollars into the futures market and manipulate the price of oil in that capacity. If they are not investing the money directly, they are doing so by hedge funds under a different name. As a teacher and part time farmer, I would like to propose this scenario: imagine all of the corn production in the world was controlled by 10 people: not 10 countries full of independent farmers but by 10 people. Those 10 people would be able to completely control the market and the futures market. But this manipulation is even easier for the oil exporting countries because they don't have to worry about weather - all they have to do is simple control how much oil they are willing to export. Now how you can control that or prosecute them? I'll leave that up to you. But I will leave you with this thought: if any other business [construction companies, farmers, etc] were working in collusion in a form of bid rigging [and fundamentally that is what is happening with the price of oil] the Justice Department would have them in a court so fast it would boggle the mind. But we allow the market to be exploited with no legal recourse what so ever.